South Africa's Winnie Mandela in dates

In this file photo taken on June 04, 2010 South African MP Winnie Madikizela-Mandela addresses members of South Africa's ruling party African National Congress (ANC) during a street party to celebrate six days left to the opening of the 2010 Fifa World Cup in Johannesburg. PHOTO | ALEXANDER JOE | AFP

What you need to know:

  • 1936: Born on September 26 as Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela in the Eastern Cape province.

  • 1955: Becomes the country's first black social worker in a hospital in Johannesburg's Soweto township.

JOHANNESBURG,

 Key dates in the life of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, ex-wife of Nelson Mandela, who died on Monday at the age of 81: 

  • 1936: Born on September 26 as Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela in the Eastern Cape province.

  • 1955: Becomes the country's first black social worker in a hospital in Johannesburg's Soweto township.

  • 1958: Marries Nelson Mandela, a lawyer and leading member of the anti-apartheid African National Congress (ANC).

    In this file photo taken on November 30, 1999 Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (L), the estranged wife of former South African President Nelson Mandela listens to the testemony by Jerry Richardson at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) amnesty hearing in Johannesburg. PHOTO | ODD ANDERSEN | AFP

  • 1962: Mandela is jailed. Over the next years, Madikizela-Mandela emerges as an influential ANC figure, enduring harassment and stints in prison.

  • 1986: In her most controversial speech, she endorses the practice of "necklacing" or burning people by setting alight a tyre around their necks.

  • 1990: Nelson Mandela is freed after 27 years in prison.

    In this file photo taken on February 21, 1990 Anti-apartheid leader and African National Congress (ANC) member Nelson Mandela and his wife Winnie play with their grandchild Bambata at their Soweto home. PHOTO | WALTER DHALDHLA | AFP

  • 1991: Madikizela-Mandela is found guilty and fined for the kidnapping of four Soweto youths and the killing of one by her team of bodyguards known as the "Mandela United Football Club".

  • 1992: She is forced out of all executive positions in the ANC after allegations of corruption and mismanagement.

  • 1994: Appointed deputy minister of arts, culture, science and technology in Mandela's unity government. The next year, she is sacked for insubordination but keeps her position as member of parliament and head of the powerful Women's League.

    In this file photo taken on July 05, 1991 Nelson Mandela kisses his then-wife Winnie Mandela after being unamimously elected to succeed to African National Congress (ANC) president Oliver Tambo (R), in Durban. PHOTO | TREVOR SAMSON | AFP

  • 1996: Is divorced from Mandela, after four years of separation.

  • 1998: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission implicates her in torture, murder and abduction during the struggle against apartheid.

  • 2003-2004: Convicted of fraud, with a suspended jail sentence.

    In this file photo taken on July 27, 1987, Winnie Mandela (L), then wife of jailed-for-life anti-apartheid leader and African National Congress (ANC) member Nelson Mandela, raises a clenched fist as she attends with Sello Motau's mother (R) the funeral of Sello Motau, senior member of the "Umkhonto We Sizwe" (Spear of the Nation), the ANC military wing, who was gunned down in Swaziland on July 9, 1987. PHOTO | WALTER DHLADHLA |AFP

  • 2009: Manages to secure only the fifth place on the ANC's electoral list for the 2009 general election.

  • 2013: Death of Nelson Mandela

  • April 2 2018: Death of Winnie Mandela